Andrew Riddell was my father, and Portrait of a Knight is dedicated to him. We all wrote trip journals, and this was his journal of the Dubai trip. -
The flight from Singapore was overnight. There was a stop in Colombo. Fortunately, we did not have to get off the plane. I was dimly aware of landing, I don't think a even remember taking off again.
We were all fairly well awake by the time we were approaching Dubai. It was still quite early in the morning as we got our first sight of the desert. Well, in fact, we did not see too much desert, as it was being obscured by fog. Not something we'd expected to meet in that part of the world, of course.
The airport is designed on a large scale - the planes taxi in to either side of a LONG building - which turned out to not be the main terminal. After walking along long corridors in this building (past one or two little prayer rooms), we were offered a ride in a little golf-cart type vehicle, which we gladly accepted. It took us quite a long way. Later we worked out that it took us under the main tarmac. This delivered us to the main terminal - named in honour of Sheik Rashid, the father of the current sheik, and the man generally credited with (and revered for) building Dubai into a modern place with a strong economy.
The Dubai airport is right in close to the city, so it is not a very long taxi ride. In Dubai, there are only particular taxis that are allowed go to and from the Airport - they have a particular badge-like design painted on their door. Having consigned the guitar and large suitcase to the left-luggage office, we went for the first large-looking taxi we could find. The driver turned out to be a woman - and a bit of a character.
We had rung from NZ and booked a place at the Al-Kanark Hotel - in the Deira Souk, pretty much the heart of the old city. The address of the Hotel was simply 'Naif Road' - no number. It did not take took long to get to the Souk, but then the taxi driver seemed to make the most of the inexactness of the hotel's address to take us in a bit of an extra loop around the Souk. Eventually we had to point Naif Road out to her, and insist that she drive down it.
When we reached the hotel, she insisted on parking on the footpath, although there was a not too tight parking place available on the street. As we started unpacking our stuff from the the taxi, some policemen arrived and started remonstrating with her.
We were not 100% certain that the hotel would have actually reserved a room for us - it had seemed too casual when we had rung them up. So, as the taxi driver discussed her parking with the policmen, I nipped up to the hotel to check that there was a room. Fortunately there was, so we left the taxi driver and the police to it, and lugged our gear to the lift and up to the hotel.
There was quite a delay getting our room ready, so we sat round in the rather large armchairs in the hotel lobby. It was a quite relaxed and firendly atmosphere. The (entirely male) staff came and went, and stood round chatting, and watching the TV, and eventually got our room ready.
The room was fairly simple - long and narrow, with just enough room for 3 single beds and a mattress on the floor (which Stephen claimed), a big emply wardrobe, and a duchess with a TV on it. The attached bathroom was about as big as the room - a big square concrete room with a shower over in one corner, a toilet at another spot along the wall, and a basin in the near corner. It all worked OK, though.
At the other end of the room was a door out to a small balcony from which we could see all the life of the Souk going by. There was an old, but functioning, air conditioning unit set into the wall above this door.
The boys and I went out in search of an Internet cafe. The opinion at the hotel desk was that there was one at Beniyas Square, a few blocks away - so we set off for there. Well, we actually started with a lunch stop at a cafe just on the corner near the hotel. A few sandwiches, and some exotic sauces. We did not get given serviettes, but a box of tissues instead. We found this to be quite universal everywhere we went in Dubai.
At Beniyas square, we did not find an Internet Cafe, but when we asked a guy if he knew where one was, he gave us very exact instructions about how to get to one that was very close to our hotel. He spoke very good English (as do a LOT of people in Dubai - it used to be a British protectorate). He was rather apologetic about the fact that he could not actually take us to the Internat Cafe. (Interestingly enough, we met him again the next day, and he was very pleased that we had found the place).
Building don't really have street numbers in Dubai, so he had given us the name of the building, and the street corner that it was near. We found it easily enough - a shopping centre with a very shiny interior, and lots a little boutiques selling things like jewellry and fur coats. Many of the shops had notices in Russian - apparently Dubai is a popular place for Russians to come and buy luxury goods to sell in Russia.
Anyway, as described, the Golden Fork Internet Cafe was on the 3rd floor, attached to the Golden Fork restaurant. 5 Diruhms (about NZ$3) for a half-hour. We did our email, checked up on the Super-12, and watched the live reports on CricInfo of the One-dayer being played at Shrajah (only about 20 miles away) between NZ and Pakistan.
I dropped the boys back at the Hotel, and went on a recce for some groceries. The weather was good and warm, but nothing like the heat (or humidity) of Singapore, so it was not too unpleasant to be walking round even in the mid-day.
Our hotel was located at one corner of the Deira Souk - an incomprehensible labrynth of narrow alleys, all lined with tiny shops, selling everything: clothes, spices, carpets, electonics, toys, suitcases..... This labrynth covers an area about a 1/2 mile or so on each side. We came to think of it as the area 'in behind' the hotel, sort in the same way as you think of there being there being thick bush and steep hills 'in behind' Huntly.
In my grocery search, I went only a wee way 'in behind', in order to avoid getting lost so early in the piece. It did not take too long to find a place that was pretty similar to an NZ dairy - grocery items on the shelves, a fridge in the corner with drinks, etc etc. Some of the grocery items were rather different to what you'd see in NZ. Anyway, stocking up on a few staples proved not too difficult.
We had no specific plans for what we wanted to do in Dubai, but one think we thought should be worth doing was to have a camel ride. The opinion at the Hotel desk was that we should be able to get a Camel ride over at the Heritage Village on the other side of the Creek (Dubai is built along each side of the Dubai Creek). This seemed a bit odd to us, we had been thinking that Camel Rides were something you'd need to go out of town for. However, we thought it was worth going to investigate, anyway.
Prior to this, though, I actually needed organise a piece of business. It so happened that there was in Dubai a guy who had been evaluating the Tent program, and had been running a bit hot-and-old with Dan: sometimes sounding keen to buy, then pleading lack of cash, and so on. So, we decided that I should at least visit him while in Dubai. Of course, nothing is ever easy in a foreign place. Initially, the phone number I had for him was wrong; I tried the cell phone number of his assistant, which was busy... Fortunately, the assistant's phone had stored my calling number, and he called me back. So, we were able to organise when and where to meet. Again, this was not a straightforward matter of "Such-and-such a number" on "such-and-such street", but a matter of "get a taxi to the so-and-so restaurant, and I'll be able to pick up from there - if the taxi driver does not know the restaurant, then he will probably know the Mercedes show-room across the road...".
Having made these 'precise' arrangements for a meeting in the morning we set off for the Heritage Village.
And, yes, we did find the camel rides. On a patch of bare sand beside the road just outside the Heritage Village there were a couple of men with two camels. The boys had a ride - a couple of times around this patch of sand, then we adults also had a ride. The Camels had to sit down to let us climb on, and it is a bit worrying as they stand up again, as the standing up begins with quite a steep pitch forward, and then a sway backwards.
However, they were not too bad tempered, so the walk round the sand was quite pleasant. We got plenty of photos to document the fact having ridden camels. A bit if a haggle with the camel men got the price for the ride down to something not too unreasonable.
It was only a brief camel ride, but we decided that this was enough to satisfy us.
The ride back across the river was even better then the trip across. By this stage the sun was setting, spreading an orange glow across the water, and washing orange across Dubai's light-coloured buildings.
The visit to John Scott, who was evaluating Surface, was rather inconclusive. The taxi, driven by an Indian who was keen to talk about cricket, delivered me to the Mercedes dealarship OK, and John picked me up from there. We drove around the block to his business - an relatively substantial office with a number of engineers and draughtsmen working on various construction projects. After a brief discussion of the program in general (and the fact that John still needed to pay Dan for work Dan had done for him) I spent a couple of hours with the chief engineer, Mr Nandi, working through the program. I managed to demonstrate to him how to perform some operations he had been having trouble with - we also managed to have a crash! [Surface was a program my Dad designed that was used for 3-D modelling of tents. We visited his friend and business partner Dan during our tour of the British Isles.]
It was a long, slow wander back to the hotel, absorbing all the sights, sounds, contrasts and smells of Dubai. Then across the road from the hotel for a roast chicken and chips, and great fruit drinks, at an outdoor café. It was a really good way to finish our visit - sitting out in the warm evening, watching the busy, but always polite, Dubians going about their evening business, feeling really pleased that we had decided to come here.
Of course, we knew almost nothing about Dubai when we arrived, and so had not really known what to expect. It had been a pleasant surprise just what an interesting, safe and friendly place Dubai is.
The streets were almost deserted at 6:00 am the following morning. But we managed to flag down a passing taxi, and load ourselves in, with the aid of the ever-helpful guys from the hotel desk. Next stop - Italy.
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